Pokémon GO Release Date Closer as USA Field Tests Open

Pokémon GO Field Tests have been officially extended to the United States of America, developer Niantic Labs has announced on their official site. The field tests are already ongoing in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, making this the third major territory where the field tests are taking place. Of course, the field test is not the full version of the game: and Niantic hesitates to call it even an alpha version of the game, but the essence of it is really close to a beta test: you are to install the game, play it, and report bugs and feedback to the developers.

To sign up for the field tests, head over to the official Pokémon GO site. I can’t access it from my location, sadly, so you, brave reader, will have to find out what lies beyond that link at your own peril. It is unclear if users will continue to be banned from the field tests for sharing information about the game as they have been during the Japan, Australia and New Zealand field tests. To participate, you’ll need a compatible iOS or Android mobile device.

Pokémon GO does not have a scheduled release date just yet, but we expect it to release sometime later this year, perhaps coinciding with the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon. The game is scheduled to roll out in waves, and in the first wave, the game will release in North America, Japan, Europe and possibly Australia and New Zealand. In the second wave, it will release in the rest of the world.